Conventional piston damper assemblies include a magnetic friction piston damper assembly having a piston damper and a relative position sensor. The relative position sensor is a linear potentiometer whose electrical resistance varies in proportion to the piston displacement in the housing thereby indicating the relative position of the housing and the piston. Conventional piston damper assemblies also include a vehicle suspension strut whose height is sensed by the magnitude of the phase difference between AC current and voltage in a coil. Such conventional piston damper assemblies having such relative position sensors are not well adapted to also integrate a separate relative velocity sensor into a compact design for the piston damper assembly.
What is needed is an improved piston damper assembly, and an improved dust tube subassembly thereof, having a position sensor.